BO Routes..

[Romulus]

Any discussion concerning best routes to take when the SHTF? I have family living in a large metropolitan city approx. 6 hrs away that will BO to my retreat. I'm thinking the interstate highways would be best in the early stages of a meltdown (first couple of hours), but after that local highways and roads.

Any thoughts?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Very very early only. Once it starts it will be much like the hurricane evacuation routes. All clogged up. Good county maps are invaluable at such times. Stop signs at the mile lines will become more like slowdowns and speeds will be slower and more fuel will be consumed with constant stops/slows and goes so plan ahead. Like anything else you must drive/test them with full loads and have backups and backups to the backups.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

These are a few of the map sites I use for the GMHB and Hunting and BO plans.

http://www.digital-topo-maps.com/

http://libremap.org/data/

I have copies of them in each bag in ziplocks and saved to my drives and flash drives. They help me with foot routes as well. I actually found a power line route that takes me close to work to about 700yds from the house on these sources thats even good enough to follow in the dark. I'm not sure of your location but there are alot of good maps for public lands and sometimes utility companies, patrol officers, emergency services, state dept of trans, postal workers, national guardsman etc are good human sources for local maps. They might have an old spare one they might part with.

[Klayton]

Drats, that is a pay site Matt. I thought there was a free topo map site somewhere?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

?????
http://www.digital-topo-maps.com/topo-maps.shtml is free , just go to the lower right hand where it says free topo
and so is the other one

[Klayton]

Oh I saw $xx.xx per year instant access... ok going back to look...

[lcas-271]

Like was said before, interstate highways would only be advisable VERY early on during a disaster. I think you'd be much better off to look into either state routes or rural "county" roads. The best bet would of course be to scout out the routes several times along with alternates along the way

[Romulus]

Like was said before, interstate highways would only be advisable VERY early on during a disaster. I think you'd be much better off to look into either state routes or rural "county" roads. The best bet would of course be to scout out the routes several times along with alternates along the way

Thanks for the info folks, sounds stupid, but scouting out routes beforehand didn't occur to me. DUH! One more reason this forum is invaluable...

[Hidden Agenda]

Make sure you calculate the fuel requirements for all routes and plan "cut-overs" from one route to another. Before we moved to our BOL (which is now our homestead), we had multiple routes planned. We intentionally used all of them frequently to ensure familiarity. We also cut-over from route to route and knew that no matter which route (or combination of routes) we took, we could do it on 1/2 a tank of gas. And yeah, we always kept a half tank in the vehicles (still do).

Also, make sure as many people in your party as possible know as much as you do about the routes (in case you are separated, etc...).

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I have noticed that my state is going to cable barriers in the space between major highways



It used to look like this


Now it looks like this


This is going to be a major issue in the event of a large city major evacuation. The median is no longer usable and the direction flow will be harder to control. Many places that have hurricanes are going to be better at blocking incoming traffic and opening these roads than states/cities that dont ever try it. In the event of a sudden catastrophic event there will be no one to control the incoming flow therefore it will not be usable to evacuate. It also slows down dramatically those who have the jacked up 4x4 trucks of death that they thought they could just skip around stalled out vehicles unless you come up with a plan now.
Something to think on if you work, live or travel thru a large city. Start scouting the smaller roads now

[jimmycthemd]

Although we don't have a bug out location, we both ride motorcycles many weekends a month except in the winter. We've ridden, re-ridden and then ridden again on most country roads in north Georgia. We know at least 4 routes out of our immediate area and 10+ routes out of town and at least 4 or 5 to most of the north Georgia areas, including WMAs. So far, since we don't have a BOL, all our preps have been to bug in.

I do have topo and road maps of most areas just in case, though.

I can walk greenways from about 1/2 mile of my house to about 1/4 mile of work. Those would probably be pretty crowded and dangerous. I'll have to look into power line runs...I hadn't thought of that.

[WiseOwl]

Growing up here in Atlanta, I know 90% of the roads in the perimeter and 75% of them outside the perimeter.

I was a courier for 5 years so I know just about every backroad, country road, cut though, and non traffic streets.

I hope the only reason I ever get to use these is to bypass traffic or go to a friends.

I can get from where I live to where I would NEED to go without touching an expressway. I would cross under and over them but they wouldnt be exit ramp roads.I have actually taken these routes "to the hills" quite a few times before I even started the preppin stuff. G.O.O.D. has always been on my agenda if need be.

[Noble]

It would also be good to have a knowledge of what rail lines are near you and where they go, in case you have to hoof it out on foot. Rail lines would only be good for certain stretches though, cause they tend to lead to big cities :)

[MustangGal]

We are pretty rural. Thanks to Matt's maps, I just counted 125 homes in our "city." Thankfully, DH knows the back roads better than anyone I know, he patrolled as a deputy for four years or so before going to a city police force. I know we can make it to my parent's home - they are more rural than we are - without driving on any highways for any length of time. We would have to cross a couple....

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I have noticed that my state is going to cable barriers in the space between major highways

[ATTACH]1076[/ATTACH]

It used to look like this
[ATTACH]1077[/ATTACH]

Now it looks like this
[ATTACH]1078[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]1079[/ATTACH]

This is going to be a major issue in the event of a large city major evacuation. The median is no longer usable and the direction flow will be harder to control. Many places that have hurricanes are going to be better at blocking incoming traffic and opening these roads than states/cities that dont ever try it. In the event of a sudden catastrophic event there will be no one to control the incoming flow therefore it will not be usable to evacuate. It also slows down dramatically those who have the jacked up 4x4 trucks of death that they thought they could just skip around stalled out vehicles unless you come up with a plan now.
Something to think on if you work, live or travel thru a large city. Start scouting the smaller roads now

Ok they have about completed these cable barriers here. One area that remains under construction the other day had one of their workers pickup get stuck. They had to shut down the major highway to pull him out. This stretch has no exits so traffic backed up up 6 1/2 miles in the short time it took to throw on a chain and pull him out of the mud.
I saw a huge pileup in florida on the national news the other day too where cable barriers were present and there was no place to go and no place to stage emergency vehicles etc.
In the name of "safety" we have effectivley created a fatal funnel during bad weather such as snowstorms or attempts to get away from the tornando, traffic events or real emergencies that we must avoid in our planning.